That Science Fiction Thread.

Everything else you want to talk about!

Moderator: sonic

User avatar
Elmo
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:15 am
Location: Plato's Cave Weapon of Choice: Sarcasm

Post by Elmo »

Something i can't resist recommending, It's sort of Science Fiction, 'The Book of Dave' by Will Self. It's a vision of how the world would be if an entire society and their language/culture was based off a 'religious text' written by an semi-illiterate racist london taxi cab driver called dave. :lol: Funniest book ever!
Joseph Cambell wrote:Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
User avatar
douyang
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:08 pm

Post by douyang »

sylphsonic wrote:At any rate you're example is kind taking the people who are just offended about their customs concerning their prophet being violated (something which the upholding of does not by most standards harm others), and lumping them with the people whose beliefs and customs do hurt others. I don't think you really mean it that way if you think about it, but the point I'm trying to make is that you should not hurt one large group of people so grievously to get at another group (yeah, the people in the latter group can belong to the former, too). And that's what it felt like the whole business with those cartoons was doing. Surely there's a better way to rattle the cage? And for the right reasons? Doing it the way we outsiders are going about it just makes it worse in many ways, and it also appears to be largely for the wrong reasons (so we can mouth off like big wankers about how we've got 'freedom of speech', and so 'in your face' and the like... I find that sentiment just as destructive in it's own way, and quite vulgar and unpleasant.)
I don't have a problem with people getting offended and speaking out against the cartoons or anything else they find offensive. I do have a problem with the flooding of death threats and mass intimidation, calls for censorship, putting a bounty on someone's head, riots, boycotts, and sundry other forms of brutality and thuggery for the express purpose of forcing your supernatural beliefs on others just because an anti-religious opinion offends people. The real issue here is not whether people are offended, that is totally trivial compared to protecting the freedom of those with offensive or minority opinions.
User avatar
rcog3
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:15 pm
Location: Montreal

Post by rcog3 »

I though I would just mention Greg Egan. Very though provoking, some called him the new PKD. A few of his short stories are available (legally) here

Besides that, PKD is my all-time number one. Great style + interesting subjects. "The Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldrich" took me a while to figure out. "A Maze of Death" had me with its gloomy end :-). I also like the zen-ness of Ursula K. Le Guin (LHoD is a nice re-exploration of space travel). And the Dune series, of course. I just can't get over with the Bene Gesserit.
User avatar
Jeni Nielsen
Posts: 405
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:35 am

Post by Jeni Nielsen »

rcog3 wrote:I though I would just mention Greg Egan. Very though provoking, some called him the new PKD. A few of his short stories are available (legally) here

Besides that, PKD is my all-time number one. Great style + interesting subjects. "The Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldrich" took me a while to figure out. "A Maze of Death" had me with its gloomy end :-). I also like the zen-ness of Ursula K. Le Guin (LHoD is a nice re-exploration of space travel). And the Dune series, of course. I just can't get over with the Bene Gesserit.
I love Philip K. Dick. I've mentioned him on here about 100 times already, but I think most of those posts got deleted in the "purge" when the forum crashed. XD I recently read A Scanner Darkly, in anticipation of the movie which I never ended up seeing. That was really spooky. He's got this paraniod view of the world that makes for great SF.

I'd love to see a movie of Eldrich. The book itself scared the S**T out of me. I'm so glad the library across the street from me has a huge collection of PKD novels. I want to read them all.
User avatar
Jeni Nielsen
Posts: 405
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:35 am

Post by Jeni Nielsen »

Jeni Nielsen wrote: My one beef with canon SF authors like Asimov is that his characters blow.
I would like to say that after reading the Foundation Trilogy, that I take back this statement. Asimov wasn't great at writing characters, but in Foundation he comes up with some pretty well thought out interesting ones. So there you go. :)
User avatar
Jeni Nielsen
Posts: 405
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:35 am

Post by Jeni Nielsen »

I also just finished a book called "Appleseed" by an amazing author named John Clute (perhaps some of you Brits know him. He's from America but lives in your country now :) )

The way he transforms the English language is simply awe inspiring.

::sorry for the tripple post :shock: ::
User avatar
fyst
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:19 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Post by fyst »

Jeni Nielsen wrote:I'm so glad the library across the street from me has a huge collection of PKD novels. I want to read them all.
I too am a rabid Philip K. Dick fan. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was my first taste, as a result of being a huge fan of Ridley Scott's truly awesome Blade Runner film.

The edition of Androids I bought was a part of Orion Publishing's Science-Fiction Masterworks series which I got into and now own the top 30 or so volumes and am working my way through them. I'd recommend them to anyone. Really nice presentation and artwork on all the novels and they look great with a load of them side-by-side on a shelf.

Someone (I think it was KittyGoth) mentioned Richard Matheson's I Am Legend which I loved also. I'd recommend George R. Stewart's Earth Abides for a similar dystopian, survivalist type of read (but without the vampires).

Some of my other favourites include;
  • The Forever War - Joe Haldeman (A great use of time-dilation as a plot tool)
    Cities In Flight - James Blish (The scope of this novel is astounding)
    Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
    The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe (When it all came together at the end my jaw was on the floor)
    The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut (A joy from cover to cover)
Gothmog
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:32 pm
Location: Megatech

Post by Gothmog »

I've only read one P.K.D novel, and that was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and yes it too was because of Blade Runner. I really enjoyed it actually. Most likely I'll try We Can Remember It For You Wholesale next because it's the foundation of for another movie that I really like, that movie being Total Recall, for those who don't know.

I recently bought a book by a fellow named Paul M. Sammon, called Future Noir, it essentially covers the making of the movie Blade Runner, the transition from book to movie, the philosophical undertones and some of PKD's inspirations and 'recreational habits'. It's well worth a read if anyone is heavily interested in Blade Runner.

Probably one of my favourite Sci-Fi novels to date would have to be Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's very long but boy is it worth it. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a helping of Sci-Fi.
User avatar
sonic
Special
Posts: 274
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:03 pm

Post by sonic »

I have Future Noir. It was fun... I don't remember it now though, lol.

Gosh, the revival of this thread and me scrolling back through it was surprising. I was going through a real crisis of belief in thinking there, wasn't I? -> Tries to remember what was going on back in 2006... oh yeah. I was still in the throes of cross-cultural adjustment. Mostly better now. I've been remade, lol.
Post Reply